Look No Further

Dog on the floor. Fan blowing. Chicken and mango on the plate. Movie on pause.

Habits, beliefs, fear and hope all momentarily recede to reveal That which is never hidden.

This (whatever This is) is True. And beautiful. Because It is here, now, in this moment.

Untitled in the Key of G

From Boulder to Dharmsala
Bangok to Walla Walla
my search took me to many a strange land

So imagine my surprise
when I caught my dakini's eyes
in a Wal-Mart in Mobile, Alabam

She said "My name is Holly
but my friends call me Kali"
and then she smiled at me from behind her dreads

With the courage I could muster
I decided I should trust her
but I wondered about those severed heads

She read me Ramana Maharshi
and recited Rumi to me in Farsi
she taught me yoga in her double wide

She loved incense and candles
and black label Jack Daniels
she wore a Colt .45 on her side

We made love like Shiva and Shakti
and damn, that little girl rocked me
and I wondered how long I'd been blind

She said "close your eyes and you'll see me"
and that moved Kundalini
and the serpent uncoiled up my spine

We taught each other the Dharma
as we burned up all of our karma
she was the finest woman I'd ever met in my life

We spent our days laughing like a mantra
and spent our nights lost in our tantra
but something told me I'd never call her my wife

One day we had our fortunes told
and we learned that only one of us would grow old
she smiled and said "don't worry babe 'cause it's you"

She said she felt she would be leaving soon
probably some time around the next full moon
and I knew right then and there what she was going to do

she always said it would be suicide
that would carry her to the other side
when she was ready for a different taste of bliss

She thanked me helping evolve her
and then she handed me that Colt revolver
and said "here you go I'll no longer need this"

I cried the day we prayed goodbye
and thanked her for teaching me to fly
and then I gave her what would be our final kiss

I imagine that she was humming Bob Marley
the day that she finally rode that Harley
right off the road out into the abyss

Dr O's Groundbreaking, Deeply Spiritual and Insightful Miracle Diet!

1. Make healthy food choices. Forgive yourself when you don't
2. Disconnect these choices from beliefs about the size and/or shape of your body
3. Learn what size portion is ideal for you and eat that amount
4. Chew thoroughly
5. Eat mindfully or contemplatively. The miracle of taste or gratitude for sustenance (or the money to buy sustenance) may be good places to start though you will, of course, find what works for you
6. Pay attention to how you feel after eating. As best as you can, use the information to inform your food choices going forward
7. Eat with your fingers as often as possible, particularly when in "polite company"

This diet is guaranteed to not make you rich, pretty or famous.

Gassho

What's Going On?

Every second of every day, so much is going on. Cars are going on, people are going on, every variety of emotion is going on. Birds are zooming around, people are being born, dying, crying, making love and laughing. Sea life is going on, computers are doing whatever it is that they do. A deafening silence is going on on the moon, winds are blowing across the vast desolation of Saturn. Galaxies are going on. The incomprehensible immensity of our ever expanding universe is going on. Even this little office I'm sitting in is going on. One could spend a lifetime contemplating how improbable and unknowable this office alone is.

It's odd isn't it- that there's stuff? Isn't this odd?

Sometimes I just want to go “Yo! Everybody! Hold up! Hold up a second! What in the world is going on? What are we doing and why are we doing it?” An even better question- "How is this?" How is all of this happening? Why am I writing this? Why do you understand it? When we talk with each other, we look into each others eyes and this seems routine. But why do we perceive each other at all? It’s all so peculiar.

Isn’t it bizarre that something so outrageously, unfathomably and infinitely complex as all of this is occurring? The craziest part though is how it's all so patently obvious that we hardly even notice it. Why aren’t we completely stupefied all the time? How can we worry about waiting in line at the post office when things as improbable and completely unknowable as “post offices” and “standing in line” seem to exist?

It's interesting to stop sometimes and just see what This is like. Not to 'think' about what This is like (though trying to 'not think' is more of the same.) What if we just drop the chatter ("Will I get what I want? Will I like what I get?" etc) while also dropping all attempts to 'feel' what This is like (though of course still allowing any feelings that do arise.) What if we just stop for a second and wonder what This is like.

Yes- that's it. Stopping at the wonder. How cool.

Lila

"Lila is a concept within Hinduism literally meaning "pastime", "sport" or "play". Lila is a way of describing all reality, including the cosmos, as the outcome of creative play by the divine absolute (Brahman)."

It does seem real. I'll admit that. My "self" does seem real. Yours seems even more real for some reason.

But it's not.

All of this stuff seems so serious. We gotta get the right job and the right partner and the right this and the right that.

But we really don't. Mostly cause there's no "we". There's only This. Only "One without a second."

So No Self. No solid, enduring self. This is the funny part, the unfathomable part. The part that if I ever see through will permit real living to begin. When the "life or death" stuff drops, the play can begin. Lila.

We wake from dreams all the time and instantly realize that none of it really happened. What if WE (the selves we feel and believe ourselves to be) were part of a dream. Part of Consciousness's dream. What if we are the ongoing dream of the divine absolute, of Brahman. How would we know? We wouldn't because we would have no reference point outside of the dream (because all potential points of reference would be similarly part of the dream).

But still, dream characters do wake up. We occasionally become lucid within our own dreams. Perhaps Consciousness does as well.

So, in the mean time, what do we do? No idea, though I do like St Augustine's suggestion:

"Love God and do what you will"